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Sunday, November 22, 2009

'Marathon streakers' and 'Mega-marathoners'

A lot of people(read non long distance runners) think I am crazy because I have been running 50K at the Bangalore Ultra the last 3 years. Moreover, people are amazed that people actually run 75K and 100K! As I have said before running is addictive and has its fair share of crazies. The articles below that I came across the last few weeks talk about two kinds of running lunatics.

“streaker,” as it relates to the running world, is someone who has run a certain number of consecutive races. This article talks about runners who have done over 20 or even 30 straight marathons at Boston, NY or Chicago. I am hoping to be a streaker at Mumbai marathon - having participated in all the 7 editions(2 HM, 5FMs) so far. Similary with the Bangalore ultra as I have run all the 3 editions todate.

Mega marathoners as this article explains are people who have run hundreds of marathons. Three Germans, a Finn and a Japanese woman are known to have clocked more than 1,000 marathons apiece -- that is 26,200 miles, about 1,300 miles more than the circumference of the earth. The record holder, 74-year-old Horst Preisler, has run 1,636 marathons. Living in India where marathon events are just picking up and having started running after the age of 40 I would be fortunate if I can touch a century of marathons. That would require me to run another 76 marathons(the Bangalore ultra on 15th November was my 24rth!) - an average of 4 per year(Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ultra, Auroville..) for the next 20 years should get me there! hmm..